Ax falls on 'Fifty Dead Men' screening

Film slated to premiere at Toronto film festival

MONTREAL -- Canadian distributor TVA Films on Friday canceled a press screening for Kari Skogland's British spy drama "Fifty Dead Men Walking," which stars Ben Kingsley and Rose McGowan and is slated to have its world premiere Sept. 10 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The distributor cited "a print problem." But the cancellation came on the same day that the biopic's main subject, former IRA infiltrator Martin McGartland, threatened legal action against the Canadian-British co-production to stop the festival bow on grounds that the feature infringes his moral rights.

Skogland adapted McGartland's 1998 book of the same name to shoot "Fifty Dead Men Walking," which portrays an IRA mole named Marty who provided information to Britain's Special Branch before his cover was blown in 1991.

"The film is an entirely false and distorted account of what took place," McGartland said in a statement issued Friday, adding that he was "reserving all my legal rights and remedies in this matter."

The film's producers, Brightlight Pictures of Vancouver and Future Films in London, and Toronto organizers could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.